The skipper, the quartermaster, the boatswain and the crew

My brother is the skipper of the legendary Okyrhoe.  His uncanny ability to read the wind shifts makes long sea passages or racing around the buoys a pleasure.

The author of this blog is Okyrhoe's quartermaster the man whose primary responsibility is navigation.  The term likely derives from the German Quartiermeister "master of quarters" or "master of the quarterdeck" the man who provides navigational advice to the helmsman and the captain of the ship.  

The boatswain or bosun is the senior officer in charge of all pertaining to the hull and sails.  Kostas (red cap) is the sailor who admirably makes sure that everything i.e. tackle and sails are trimmed and function to perfection.  Most of the crew came from Greece but there was international participation as John (gray cap) came from Dublin, Ireland and sailed the Lavrio to Kea race.

Those who followed the posts from last year's racing know that Okyrhoe had a very good year.  The numerous awards are testimony of the expertise of her crew.

"now Zeus who masses the storm clouds hit the fleet with the north wind - a howling demonic gale shrouding over in thunderheads the earth and sea at once - and night swept down from the sky and the ships went plunging headlong on, our sails slashed to rags by the hurricane's blast"  (Odysseus describing storms he encountered to Alcinous  in  Homer's Odyssey)